MONROE - Efforts to keep country roads clean and beautiful seem to be paying off in the Town of New Glarus.
Only the brave and stout-hearted showed up at the Swiss Miss Center in New Glarus to brave the strong, cold winds Saturday morning for two hours of picking up trash along country roads.
"Many residents take it on their own (to patrol roads near their property) that we don't know about," Pete Shaffer, a member of the Parks Commission, said.
"It's really beautiful here," said Rita Mahoney, chairperson of the town's Glarus Parks Commission, about the countryside surrounding New Glarus.
Trash thrown along roads was beginning to become unsightly, and residents were mentioning the problem to the town's recently-formed commission.
This is the second year the commission has designated a week for community roadside clean-up. This year was scheduled for April 19 through 26, to coincide with the village's spring cleanup days.
Last year, a cleanup campaign in a 5-mile stretch along Legler Valley Road north of the village produced 25 bags of trash, 33 gallons each.
"Could be bottles that have been there 20 years," Shaffer said.
The group decided to see how much trash had accumulated over the past year, but it surprisingly yielded very little.
Despite the cold temperature, high winds and flooded ditches, volunteers whisked up paper, broken glass, beer and soda cans, fast-food drink covers and one flip-flop.
"This isn't very much," Commission member Nancy Galhouse said, looking at her limp bag of trash as she headed back to the parked vehicles.
Galhouse said she noticed a crock pot in the ditch on the drive out to Legler Road.
"But I'll pick that up when we drive by again. I don't want to carry that around in my bag," she said.
Mahoney said the commission made the cleanup efforts a community participation event, and had a lot of help from area businesses. True Value Hardware donated trash bags, Culvers donated ice cream tokens for volunteers and Green County Parks Manager Steve Johnston supplied orange vests and pickup sticks.
Only the brave and stout-hearted showed up at the Swiss Miss Center in New Glarus to brave the strong, cold winds Saturday morning for two hours of picking up trash along country roads.
"Many residents take it on their own (to patrol roads near their property) that we don't know about," Pete Shaffer, a member of the Parks Commission, said.
"It's really beautiful here," said Rita Mahoney, chairperson of the town's Glarus Parks Commission, about the countryside surrounding New Glarus.
Trash thrown along roads was beginning to become unsightly, and residents were mentioning the problem to the town's recently-formed commission.
This is the second year the commission has designated a week for community roadside clean-up. This year was scheduled for April 19 through 26, to coincide with the village's spring cleanup days.
Last year, a cleanup campaign in a 5-mile stretch along Legler Valley Road north of the village produced 25 bags of trash, 33 gallons each.
"Could be bottles that have been there 20 years," Shaffer said.
The group decided to see how much trash had accumulated over the past year, but it surprisingly yielded very little.
Despite the cold temperature, high winds and flooded ditches, volunteers whisked up paper, broken glass, beer and soda cans, fast-food drink covers and one flip-flop.
"This isn't very much," Commission member Nancy Galhouse said, looking at her limp bag of trash as she headed back to the parked vehicles.
Galhouse said she noticed a crock pot in the ditch on the drive out to Legler Road.
"But I'll pick that up when we drive by again. I don't want to carry that around in my bag," she said.
Mahoney said the commission made the cleanup efforts a community participation event, and had a lot of help from area businesses. True Value Hardware donated trash bags, Culvers donated ice cream tokens for volunteers and Green County Parks Manager Steve Johnston supplied orange vests and pickup sticks.